Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving from our family to yours!

Here are a few pictures from our day!

A few attempts at a picture of my two kids...
At least they're smiley and silly and having fun!

Annabel is telling me she'll be right back...yeah, right! I don't recall that happening.



At least I got a great smile out of Daniel!
No more "cheese"- now we tell him to laugh and it works great! Love this one!

 Of course we had turkey and all that good stuff for dinner at Grandma Mary Kay's (Annabel loved the turkey and she even ate the sweet potatoes! Daniel liked the bread rolls best, of course.), but the pumpkin pie is what I got the camera out for! It was Annabel's first pumpkin pie. Annabel went to town on the pie. I don't think I've ever seen a pumpkin pie slice get so destroyed like that! Although, I think she mostly just liked the cool whip on top, and the pie was just sort of incidental.

 

Daniel enjoyed his dessert, too- he was begging for pie all morning. In the end, he mostly ate his ice cream instead of his pie. Thank goodness for leftovers (yes, if you can believe it we still have a slice left- I'm saving it just for Daniel, just in case...)- we'll see if he at least eats that! If he doesn't, I will!



Now, this has got to be the cutest song ever! Daniel sang it for me last weekend after I'd prodded him as to whether he'd learned any turkey songs in preschool. Of course I love Daniel's little voice and his silliness, too, which definitely makes this music to my ears! His rendition of the song has been in my head all week! I absolutely love it...and him, too. :)

Kiwi Crate

We all know Daniel loves to do projects. He's always very excited to make something, whether it's in class or at home, or wherever. It's a lot of fun and suits the artist and kindergarten teacher in me! I love projects just as much! Can't wait until Annabel can do even more and join us!

Anyway, a while back I'd read on some blogs about these project kits that you can subscribe to monthly through a company called Kiwi Crate. I fell in love instantly and knew Daniel would love them just as much! I got an email a couple weeks ago about some Christmas craft kits they were offering and I immediately ordered one for Daniel. I knew he'd have a lot of fun with it since he's just as excited for Christmas as I am and I also thought it'd be a great way to sample something from Kiwi Crate and decide if we wanted to subscribe to it. Well, let me tell you this project kit was a HIT! Daniel LOVED it! And he has already asked if we could get more kits like this- I'll take that as a sign that this was a hit and he'd love a subscription! How does he know you can get more? How does he know I was already thinking about this? He reads my mind- I'm telling you.

Anyway, Daniel got a box with his name on it at the end of last week. He didn't even know what was in it, but he was already excited- who doesn't love mail?! Daniel then proceeded to carry that box around for two days- I kid you not- until I had time to sit down and open the box with him, he even napped with it! Daniel was even more excited that it was something for just the two of us to do- "and NOT Annabel. Daddy take her in the basement to play and Mommy lock the door!" (For the record that lasted all of two seconds, although of course I didn't lock the door- Annabel wanted in on the action- she did NOT want to be squirreled away downstairs!) Anyway, after I'd spent Friday afternoon and Saturday morning hitting craft shows with my mom and sister, Daniel was super excited to wake up Saturday afternoon and find me finally home and ready to open that box! I told him that inside the box were all the things we needed to do two projects. His excitement grew after hearing this and he ripped open the brown paper covering the box, then gently opened the box, and then began excitedly taking everything out of the box. It was all packaged so well, but I certainly didn't even get a second to survey everything. Daniel went full steam ahead.

So the two projects in this box were (1) three ornaments to swirl paint into and (2) a cardboard gingerbread house, tree, and gingerbread people to put together and decorate. And it came with everything we needed- I kid you not- the glue, a paintbrush to paint the glue on, a cup to put some glue into so you could dip the paintbrush in, tape circles, all the pom poms, ribbons, tissue paper, pipe cleaners to make a candy cane, felt shapes, snow white felt, three paint bottles, squirt tops for the paint bottles, three plastic flat-bottomed ornaments, corks to close the ornaments up, and super cute instruction cards for all the possible projects involved. All in this little green box. We loved it!

So that Saturday afternoon, Daniel chose to do the gingerbread house first and we got right to work. We put it together and Daniel got right to work on decorating it with pom poms and felt shapes. Annabel had come back up from downstairs already because she wanted to watch- and she really wanted a pom pom! But she was a good little watcher- she read a magazine, sat in Ben's lap, sat in my lap...she did really well just watching for the most part. Daniel put together the tree and the people, painted the glue on the house, stuck his decorations on, made "Santa's bag" with a pom pom wrapped in tissue paper which was so clever- he even put it on the roof, put snow on the house, added ribbon onto the roof, and so on. He had a great time and was at it for quite a while. We glued it to the base, he glued some snow on the ground, we let it all dry, and then he picked out a place in our house to display it- it's right by the TV where we can see it all the time! I love how it turned out! We had a great time doing that project. There were other mini projects Daniel could do, too, that he didn't want to do- like make "wrapped candy" with tissue paper and pom poms (that's when he just made a Santa's bag, he'd seen me make a candy and then decided to make his own things, which was great!), make candy canes with pipe cleaners...just a few different touches and things they gave you materials for just in case you wanted them. He did do the stained glass window they suggested- he was excited to make it all blue for "night time." And of course when we were all done, Daniel wanted to do the next project right away! I managed to save that for the next day, somehow...

So Sunday morning, Daniel woke up and started asking right away when we could make the ornaments. Ben had to run an errand that morning (our furnace had broken Saturday and my hero of a husband fixed it all on his own- he just had to go get the part Sunday morning! don't worry- we survived the night in our house all bundled up- luckily it was a warm weekend!) so he took Annabel with him and that's when Daniel and I grabbed the chance to make our ornaments. Again, it was all so well thought out, from squeezer tips for the paint bottles, to flat-bottomed ornaments so kids could squirt the paint in easily, and so on. Daniel eagerly squirted the paint into his ornament, invited me to make one (so sweet!), and then we set to work swirling the paint around all over the inside of our ornaments. We were even given cups to turn the ornaments upside down and let the excess paint drip out (there was a lot of excess in Daniel's, let me tell you! He went a little overboard adding more and more paint to his ornament- but it all worked out just fine and he had fun!). Now we're just letting them completely dry, waiting to put up our tree this weekend and then we'll finish putting the ornaments together and hang them up! Can't wait! So we had a great time with that project, too!

I think Daniel would love to do more of these and we just might become subscribers! I was so glad it was all so well received- we had so much fun together! Enjoy our pictures!

Tree Lighting

Last weekend we took the kids to our local outdoor mall to see the tree lighting ceremony there. It was insanely busy- we were lucky to find a parking space, let's just say that. At least it was warm that night- that day it was almost 70 degrees, so it was a perfect night to be out, even if it didn't feel very Christmasy; we were thrilled! It was nice to get some fresh air. There's a light show with the tree lighting that lasted all of 10 minutes- the kids liked it for about 10 seconds (Annabel) and about 8 minutes (Daniel). Ben and I were unimpressed; it just wasn't that great of a show and certainly not worth all that parking hoopla! Anyway, we did have a fun time- Daniel loved sitting up on top Ben's shoulders and Annabel was bouncing and boogeying the whole time even if she wasn't watching the lights all the time. Annabel loved the people watching and she loved snuggling up with me, cheek to cheek. It was a fun way to kick off the Christmas season. I'm just dying to get decorating around here! I'm not sure what it is this year, but I'm very eager for Christmas- maybe because it's more and more fun every year with the kids. I know Annabel will LOVE it all...I just cannot wait to see her excitement! Here comes Christmas!!!!

The Latest with Daniel

I have a lot of news, stories, updates, and such for Daniel so I thought I'd share them today. He's had a very busy few months of adjusting to preschool and to being four years old and all; for the most part things are going well, he's doing great overall, but he is also obviously going through some phase of development that has made things a little tough around here. We do still have lots of silly and sweet moments, too- he still says the cutest, funniest things sometimes! So even if things are a little rough right now, there is still lots of love and joy!

The biggest news is that Daniel can finally write his name! This came about during the very last week of October. Up until then, Daniel had not really shown any interest in wanting to write his name. But since I know they're working on it in school, I thought it was time to work on it at home, too. (I'd tried before school even started, believe me- but I was met with resistance, he just wasn't interested, it wasn't time, and you know I like to follow my kids' cues...I knew he'd come around!) I pulled out a small dry erase board given to Daniel as a present last year and we took turns writing each letter out, and he did great! I was so proud of him. So we keep practicing from time to time using any medium possible- pen, pencil, crayon, dry erase marker, chalk, etc. He gets better and better each time. He knows how to spell and write his last name, too! Daniel is so much more willing to practice writing his name now- it's just so much fun to finally see his writing taking shape! Love it!

The other big development in the last few weeks is that for whatever reason, Daniel is having a very hard time with Ben having to work. He is definitely going through some sort of separation anxiety. As you know, Ben works from home. This can be wonderful- it's so nice to have him around to pop his head in for lunch or for hugs now & then or for naptime stories or to help us load up and leave the house, etc. This can also be challenging- the kids sometimes have a hard time understanding that Daddy can't play right now, Daddy can't give you a hug right this second, Daddy can't read a story right this second, and so on- it's confusing to be able to see Daddy through his office door or to see Daddy now and then but not all the time and not always when they choose. I totally get how the kids feel. And lately, Daniel has just been literally melting down over Daddy having to work and not being able to come play or whatever right this second. Daniel just does not want Daddy to go to work- he says this every day lately. It's been hard for all of us because it is so heartbreaking. I finally had to kick Ben out of the house; I made him actually go to his real office building- it was for everyone's good, as hard as it was to adjust to- because Ben wasn't getting work done with Daniel crying outside his door every half hour, Daniel's heart was just breaking all the time and he was just getting angrier and angrier, my heart was breaking all the time, I lost my footing as a parent- Daniel only wanted Daddy NOT Mommy, Annabel was sympathy crying all the time (as if one child crying wasn't enough!), we just couldn't play and function like that! So last week Ben worked out of the house every day and things were SO much better. Daniel would cry for a few minutes after Daddy left, but this lessened as the week went on, and I could just see Daniel calming down, relaxing, getting back into his groove. When he knows Daddy is gone but will come back, it's just so much better all around. I could finally breathe a little more, relax a little more- and I got more of my little boy back and I was just so glad. We needed to be Team Mommy Daniel Annabel again- and we finally had a good few days. I'm hoping this is just a phase, a rough patch, linked to all sorts of feelings that might have come with starting school or some development phase that comes with this age; I'm sure that this too shall pass, and we'll keep trying to help Daniel get through this. We'll all get through this just fine...I'm already starting to see improvements!

We are trying to give Daniel more one-on-one time with each of us lately. He's very quick to say "and NOT Annabel" when we tell him what we're going to do or where we're going or that one of us will take Annabel out while the other of us stays with him for some fun. I can tell he cherishes this time, as much as he does love his sister and have fun with her; I know he needs his own time. I enjoy the one-on-one time with him, too. We have a lot of fun together. One night when we had some time just us two, I got out some mini-marshmallows and toothpicks and we made shapes, figures, sculptures with the marshmallows and toothpicks. Daniel LOVED this and talked about it for days and the next time it was just the two of us, he wanted to do this activity again! So, you see, we will get through all this! My boy is so sweet and such fun and we all enjoy our time with him. I look forward to these times with Daniel- he does, too.

We had our first parent/teacher conferences a few weeks ago and it went very well. It was weird to be on the other side of the parent/teacher conferences- I've always been the teacher in these scenarious so far! Anyway, the teachers' comments were all very positive. Daniel loves to sing the songs there- who knew? I didn't! He doesn't sing any at home! He loves playground time. He loves to play with anything he can manipulate and count and move around. They showed us some of the things he does, because we told them he tells us that he does NOT know when asked what he does all day- I was glad they took the time to show us what he likes to do there. Daniel also loves to paint- I knew that! He loves to paint at home, too. They told us who a few of his friends were and that was fun to hear about. He's a good little rule follower, they said. I was glad to hear that, because of course he has his moments at home where he's not such a good listener! He loves to talk- big surprise there, heh, he takes after me clearly! He loves to "shake his sillies out" and be very silly- I knew that, too! He is one silly boy. I mentioned that we were experiencing some separation anxiety with Ben lately and they haven't noticed anything that would maybe help explain what's going on- there have been no misbehaviors or other things that might trigger this phase. I was glad to hear that, of course, but that just meant no light was shed on our new difficulties- that's okay, like I said, I'll chalk it up to a phase and of course tons of love for Daddy. Anyway, they also showed us some of Daniel's work that they'd kept for conferences. We were pleased to hear that his attention span has already improved from the beginning of the year. He knows all of his uppercase letters and most of his lowercase letters- Go Daniel! I was proud of this. He's learned a few letter sounds as well. They did say Daniel loves to be independent and strives to accomplish things on his own. One other thing I learned was that Daniel does still ask for me, usually around snack time- about two hours into the day (this made me a little sad, but also warmed my heart- he does love me, even if it's Daddy he wants at home!), but all in all, he's doing great. We were really glad to hear that he's participating so well and that he's eager to do the activities there and that he's making friends and being his silly ol' self. He seems happy there and that's what I'd hoped to hear.

In keeping with preschool notes, Daniel is finally starting to tell me a little more now and then about what he does at school. He LOVES to show me his projects right away- right there in the car when I pick him up. He's starting to talk about the jobs he's done- the backpack team, the bell ringer, the weather person- and he's also going to school wondering out loud what job he'll have today. I'm so glad to see that he's more eager and excited now. He talks about his classmates more now, which I also like to hear about. Daniel is also starting to sing some of the songs he's learning in school, if I prompt him. So we're getting there; each week I seem to hear more and more!

Daniel had his first dentist appointment last week. I was incredibly nervous, but all went well. I'm happy to report he has no cavities! YAY! Daniel did not love the cleaning and all the poking and prodding, but he was a champ and did great. He got to wear cool sunglasses during the whole appointment and they even have TV's in each room, so he was pretty happy to be able to watch Thomas the Train on TV while they worked on his teeth. So now we just have to keep up all his good habits! It was a good first visit! Of course I forgot the camera, so you'll have to accept my horrible phone-camera-quality pics below!

Here are a few other funny things we've heard lately:

Daniel has been trying to guess what we're spelling lately, if Ben and I are talking by spelling certain words. He will perk his ears up excitedly (because who spells uninteresting words in front of children- he's smart, he knows we're talking about something fun!) and then say, "what's l-n-r?" throwing out two or three random letters. It's pretty cute! Hopefully our days of spelling aren't as numbered as they sometimes appear to be...it's pretty handy!

Daniel has also mentioned, in just the past couple days, that he has stories in his eyes when he's sleeping. He was telling me this morning, "I have stories in my eyes when I sleep like this- see?" and he squeezed his eyes shut. Then he proceeded to tell me about this "story"/dream- something about cats trying to get into our backyard and he didn't like that. It was so cute to listen to him talking about what must be a dream. This is the first we've heard of such things from him. And I love the way he described them as "stories in his eyes."

Yesterday, he was tugging at my shirt (something I have little patience for- as a parent and even was I was a teacher...it's just a big pet peeve of mine, but anyway...) to get my attention while I was getting Annabel dressed. I asked him to please stop and just tell me what he wanted, he said "Mommy, I'm just trying to take all your attention away!" Well, he definitely got my attention, which is, I think, what he meant to say! It was a cute mix-up.

We have this book from the library called Truckery Rhymes, by Jon Scieszka. It's a cute book of Nursery Rhymes done with a transportation theme- we love this book, I actually laugh out loud when I read it. One of the rhymes they do is "Eeny Meeny Miny Moe" so we've been doing that rhyme with Daniel a lot lately. He loved doing it when picking out Halloween candy. But this rhyme is notable because we love his version- "eeny eeny miny moe"- love the eeny eeny, it cracks me up!

Last weekend, Daniel and I were in the kitchen doing something and talking about something we needed (I don't remember what though) and Daniel said we should get that. I asked where we could find it and he said at the flea market. He then went on to say that we shouldn't take Annabel because we don't want her to get fleas in her ears. I also asked him where the flea market was and he said it was in a neighboring town's downtown area. He had this whole story, this whole vision in his head about flea markets- it was so cute. I'm not even sure he's ever been to a flea market! Too funny.

We also think it's super cute when Daniel says, "I did a bless you"- that means he sneezed. I can't seem to get him to say he sneezed, but then again, I think this is cute. He also still says "wijiji" for Luigi...so endearing!

Today Daniel was asking Daddy if he could do something and Ben said it was a possibility. Daniel thought about this and said, "Daddy, you should just say yes. Possibility might mean no." He's said this before and it always cracks us up! He's a smart kid! Nothing gets by him.

One other thing Daniel was proud of last week was this "shooter" he made. I was in the shower upstairs, Annabel playing in my bathroom meanwhile, and Daniel was downstairs watching a Tom & Jerry DVD on TV. When I was all done getting ready, Daniel ran up to greet me and excitedly showed me a "shooter" he'd proudly cut out on his own and even detailed with a colored in circle for the finger hole. Great. Thanks, Tom & Jerry. I have only myself to blame. It was so cute, though, because he was so proud of it- it really did look like a shooter, too. Sigh. Thankfully, he hasn't played with it and in fact, I'm not even sure where it is. Whew.

So we've been busy with Daniel lately! He really is a great kid! I love to watch him play with his cars and toys. He's so creative and collaborative with his toys. He makes them talk and do things together and work together. It's tons of fun to watch. Daniel is also a lot of fun with Annabel these days. The two of them run around holding hands or chasing each other. They egg each other on and tease each other, but they have a great time and they each want more and more fun and games. It keeps them busy when we're cleaning up after dinner or doing laundry and other such chores. I love it- they have such energy! It's just so much fun to see them having fun together. I love to hear Daniel talk to Annabel and ask her questions, which she answers with an eager, very big nod or a very silly "nah" with wide smiles and twinkles in her eyes. They hug each other and blow each other kisses and kiss each other's bumps and hurts. They are so sweet together. They warm my heart so completely!

Here are pictures from some fun with Daniel lately!

Daniel writes his name on the sidewalk with chalk!!

Mommy & Daniel time: Fun with marshmallows and toothpicks!

Daniel shows us his plane!

Daniel made a person out of just sticks, too. There's a head, two arms and then two legs going down.

Daniel made a camera and took a picture of me!

(Daniel took these next two pictures!)

This was Daniel's giraffe. It's laying down.

Now I'm holding the giraffe standing up...Daniel was so creative! We had a great time...and of course we even ate a few marshmallows!

Daniel did a great job at his first dentist appointment!  

(Sorry about the picture quality- these were taken with my sorry excuse of a phone camera because I forgot my real camera!)

And finally, I'll leave you with this...Daniel's handsome school picture! 

It's cute and SO Daniel, goofy grin, shiny lips, and all!

Fall Fun & Fresh Air!

The daylight saving time adjustment a couple weekends ago had our family up and at it quite early! And it was a beautiful morning to enjoy the fresh air. We were outside by 9:00 that morning- this is rare for us! We had fun raking leaves, playing with chalk, helping Daddy in the yard, and just playing around with toys. It was a great morning and the fun & joy stayed with me for a while...we all needed that chance to just let loose and have a good time.

Annabel had a ball with the leaves. She tried raking them just like her big brother, but ended up just grabbing leaves by the handfuls after I'd raked them up and then she'd walk around and dump them all over the sidewalk or another part of the yard. So much for her help! She had so much fun, though, and it was cute to watch her!

When I had the pile of leaves all nice and big, Daniel had a ball jumping in! So did Annabel! I love Fall for this very reason...the fun of jumping and crunching the leaves.

Daniel was counting down to his jump...

Then Daniel had fun just laying there in the leaves; Annabel was inspired to join him!

Leaves stuck to Annabel's hat!

More work to be done carrying those leaves!

Daniel had carried a ladybug over to show me and then he let it go on the sidewalk but wanted to protect it.

Big brother helping little sister ride her car down the sidewalk! So sweet! Annabel did not want him to stop at all!

That would be chalk all over Annabel's coat and face! She loves to draw with chalk!